287 / 138
Engaging Politically from the Margin 287
brought to light in the novel.
Though the Great War ends in 1918, in
A God in Every Stone
,
both the Pashtun independence activism against the British Raj and the
women’s suffrage movement continue into the 1920s and 1930s and
are brought together in Book II of the novel. How the two liberation
movements may collide or unite when they meet across national
borders is a question the novel explores in depth. There is a collision
between the two when Vivian, a Western feminist, is convinced of the
simple oppositions created by the political discourse of Orientalism
that has been dominating the West for centuries: the West versus the
East (or Islam), modern versus traditional, and secularism versus
fundamentalism. For Vivian, in terms of gender equality, London is
much more progressive than Peshawar. As she explains in a letter to
Najeeb, “At present, though, England is by far the most interesting
place to be as my old friend Mrs Mary Moore, a local councillor, plans
to run for Parliament in the next elections, which will be the first to
allow women voting rights on equal terms with men” (Shamsie, 2014c:
225). While suffragettes in Britain are making revolutionary progress,
Vivian “dare[s] say” that “this all seems very odd” to Najeeb, who has
grown up in a traditional Muslim society (225). Vivian remembers that,
in 1915, Najeeb unwillingly ended her private tutoring or “civilising
mission” (113), for it was not right for him to be alone with a woman.
Even if Vivian offered to teach his sisters as well, he refused because
“they’re girls” (197). Vivian is shocked to discover that Pashtun
women are forbidden to receive education and have no right to even
choose what to wear.
In the novel, the veils or burqas that women in Peshawar wear to
cover their bodies in public stand for the oppression of women from
Vivian’s viewpoint even though at times she disguises herself in a burqa
in order to hide her English identity. When she arrives by train in 1930,
for example, she puts on a burqa to safely enter the Peshawar Valley,
which is in turmoil because Pashtuns are protesting for their
independence. “[O]n behalf of the women of the Peshawar Valley,”
Vivian feels “rage” over the restrictive nature of the burqa, finding